Not the best circumstances to have a birthday in, but I woke up this morning as a 39 year old the day after helping to carry my granddad into his funeral. Yesterday morning was of course a rather stilted affair, I didn't want to eat anything for breakfast but forced myself to have a couple of slices of toast before getting dressed up for the day. Last night was quite a light evening at my mum and stepdad's house with my sister, brother in law and adorable little niece also staying over, and my brother (the writer of Whatever Happened to Nathan McKenzie?) and his girlfriend came over too. We talked and laughed which I think did us some good, we popped to a local shop to buy snacks and beer and ended up watching some strangely compelling programme about how people spend money.
I don't want to write about the funeral itself suffice to say that it was as nice as it is possible for such an occasion to be. Afterwards we went for a meal just as we did last time, last year it was to keep Granddad occupied after Nana's funeral and this time it was for my mum's benefit but as the service took place later in the day nobody was really hungry. Afterwards we sat around at home talking and keeping our minds off what had just happened.
As an idea to have something nice for us to do we went for breakfast this morning in a delightful seafront cafe in Redcar, The Stray Cafe, as a birthday celebration of sorts before I embarked on the journey home. As I live so far away from this part of my family it was nice to be able to do some serious Uncle-ing for the last two days for my nephews and niece, in fact it was nice to see everybody despite the circumstance that brought us together.
Although I hated asking because I didn't want to be a funeral vulture, I am now the proud owner of the above photograph which has pride of place on my landing. It has been on my grandparents living room wall since it was taken, and was taken at Granddad's 60th birthday. One of my favourite memories of the occasion, probably the only clear memory, is that I fell down the stairs in the restaurant on the way out and Nana always, and I mean always, said it was because I was drunk on Coca-Cola. Saying this to a small child is a funny thing but what makes this a special memory is that she continued to say it as I grew up as if she believed that drunkenness was the actual reason. We went back to Granddad's house afterwards and my mum gave me one of his golf trophies that now takes pride of place in the dining room of my house, and an ornamental clown that has joined my collection.
The Sunday Alternative #53 is available from here.
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August housekeeping
We are now in the eighth month of the year and at a standstill as far as work is concerned. In unrelated news, it is my birthday on the 27th of this month so a nice present would be a donation using the PayPal button. This would be spent on creating podcasts, documentaries, short films, comedy sketches and various other entertainments that I will make available to enjoy online for free.
The above t-shirt and bag is also available to buy, all the money goes to the same creative fund. They are on my shop page.
I'll play you a kazoo song request, find out how here.
Letter of complaint written for you for £2, here.
steveEoliver@gmail.com
